Avengers Christmas
by firecracker189
Summary: Pepper makes her Avengers feel appreciated on Christmas.


Tony Stark sat alone, locked in his lab at Stark Tower, guzzling gin and moping. JARVIS had been instructed specifically to keep everyone out, and block all phone calls for Tony. After all, it was Christmas, and nobody should have to work on Christmas. He sighed wearily, rubbing a hand across his face. It just wasn't fair. Why should a foreign policy meeting have to take place on Christmas anyway? Pepper had been so excited to spend their first Christmas as a couple together. Well, together with the other Avengers anyway. She'd planned for weeks to make the occasion memorable for all of them, knowing they'd all had a rough time growing up. She'd even gone to the trouble to pick out individual gifts for them all, wrapping them carefully.

He hated that the day had been taken from her—and for that matter, him as well. Christmas without Pepper was simply not Christmas. Taking another swig from the bottle, he leaned against the wall.

"How exactly do you propose this happen, Bruce?" Clint's brow furrowed, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "We have no way of getting in there, since he locked himself in."

"Well, he has to come out of there, he can't spend Christmas locked up alone in there, can he?" Steve put in, twirling the discarded cap off Clint's beer between his fingers idly.

"OF course not!" Bruce exclaimed, exasperated. "And he won't have to, if you all will just help me."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Put in Natasha, grinning slyly from her spot beside Steve at the kitchen table. "I have JARVIS' manual over-ride codes memorized."

All three men turned to face her, dumbstruck. She shrugged demurely. "You forget, I did work as Mr. Stark's secretary for a time. Pepper wanted me to know things that would keep Tony out of trouble. The codes were top priority since he locked himself in there a lot."

Helping herself to the rest of Clint's beer, she stood. "Well, are you boys just going to stand there and catch flies in those mouths of yours, or are you going to help me force Stark into participating in Christmas?" Without waiting for an answer, she sashayed out of the kitchen at top speed, leaving the slightly awed men in her wake.

"Now," Natasha instructed, glancing at the men lined up in front of her. "Everybody clear on their part?"

Bruce nodded. "I'm handling clean up, Steve's manhandling, and Clint's on Tony clean up duty."

Clint wrinkled his nose, mumbling something about never having kids.

"Good." Straightening up, Natasha took a fortifying breath. "Ready?"

She quickly punched in the over-ride for the lab door. "Go!"

An hour later, the weary men trooped back downstairs, Steve and Clint supporting a sickly and exasperated looking Tony between them, stopping dead when the sight before them registered.

Natasha stood before a fully decorated, nearly 8 foot tall evergreen situated in the middle of the large common space, beaming from ear to ear. Beside her stood a rather disheveled, but nonetheless beautiful, Pepper Potts.

"Merry Christmas Everyone!" Pepper smiled, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around a shocked Tony.

"Merry Christmas, Tony." She breathed into his ear, before pulling back and offering hugs to everyone else.

"Merry Christmas, Pepper." Tony whispered, watching as Pepper (with Natasha's help) passed around the gifts she'd gotten them all.

Bruce oohed and ahhed over a new set of test tubes.

Steve blushed over a set of monogrammed handkerchiefs. ( Tony scoffed inwardly—who even used handkerchiefs anymore? But he was happy to see Pepper's hard work and tender heart appreciated. )

Natasha looked like she wanted to hug Pepper when she opened her new hip holster— leather-black of course, with red accents around the edges.

Clint was so pleased with his gift of a new shooting glove and matching quiver that he actually did hug Pepper, for almost a full five minutes too, before Tony became exasperated and kicked him in the shins. Clint stuck his tongue out at him, turning puppy dog eyes on Natasha until she relented and began gently massaging the sore shins.

Tony didn't need a gift , because he realized that he had something far more important. The people sitting around him. He finally had a home, a family. And on Christmas Day, there was no one he would rather be with.

Snuggling into Pepper's side, he sighed contentedly. "Glad you're back, Peps."


End file.
